My grandparents were both schoolteachers, but I think my grandfather’s greatest love was to be outdoors-hunting, fishing or studying plants. He loved being outdoors! He especially enjoyed summers at their cottage on Eaton Brook Reservoir in upstate New York, not too far from Colgate University.
When I was about 8 years old, I stayed for a couple of nights at their cottage for the first time. I was excited to do “lake fishing” for the first time in my life and spend time with grandpa. That first morning, I can still remember waking up to the sweet smell of smoke from the wood cook stove wafting through the chilly cottage. (Up in those hills it really cools off at night even in July!) Then grandpa fixed us bacon and eggs with burnt toast-it was wonderful!
The sun was just coming up as we started off in his rowboat. As soon as we were clear of the neighbor’s docks, he let me row-“Slow and easy, quiet as you can, don’t want to scare away the fish” he said. We soon stopped in a little “cove” where he said the fishing was good. He was using a lure-casting into deeper water, and I was using worms like I did at home and just fishing off the side of the boat. Every time my hook with a worm on it went into the water, I caught a small sunfish. Grandpa would say “Wow, you caught another dandy, good job!” I knew he was trying to encourage me, so I didn’t complain about just catching little fish…I was soon out of worms, so grandpa decided to show me “things” about the lake…He started up the motor and off we went. He showed me a few spots where you could see part of a road, or a foundation of a house and even the driveway to a house all at the bottom of the lake! All of that was so confusing to me because I didn’t yet understand that it was a manmade lake. So, he showed me the dam and the spillway, now I understood.
A few years later, grandpa showed me how to plant trees-fruit trees to be exact. He did love fresh fruit! And one very interesting thing he taught me was “grafting” where for example you could “graft” branches from let’s say a Macintosh apple tree onto a Courtland apple tree, and that tree will now produce both kinds of apples!
Later that same year in the fall, grandpa took me deer hunting with him. It was a cold dreary day with wet snow coming down. After a little while grandpa reached in his pocket and took out this huge “block” of chocolate wrapped in plastic. He got out his knife and cut me off a chunk and said, “this will provide heat and energy, always good to take along”. After about an hour he asked me how I liked deer hunting. I said, “I think I need some more heat and energy!” I had hopes and dreams of grandpa harvesting a trophy buck that day…we never even saw a single deer. But there is something that remains from that day of hunting…as we were walking through those woods behind the house where I lived, grandpa was taking acorns and dropping them in selected spots pressing them into the ground with the heel of his boot, telling me, “There’s no oak trees around here, maybe someday there will be now.” Well, about 25 years ago, my father got permission from the current landowners and the two of us walked where my grandpa and I had gone deer hunting. Do you know what I saw? I counted at least a dozen oak trees! Instantly I remembered grandpa pressing those acorns into the ground with the heel of his boot.
Yes, I will probably always remember waking up to the sweet smell of smoke from the wood cook stove wafting through the chilly cottage…
Till Next Time…..
Leave a Reply